Post-office delivery-box



UNITED S TATE s Il? AITE ,II'II...OrthicaJ JACOB H. BEIDLER, OF LINCOLN, ILLINOIS.

POST-OFFICE DELIVERY-BOX. l

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 57,464, dated August 28, 1866.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, JACOB H. BEIDLER, of Lincoln, in the county of Logan and State of Illinois, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Mail-Delivery Boxes for Post- Oftces and I do hereby declare that the following is a full and exact description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, and to the letters of reference marked thereon.

The nature of my invention consists, primarily, in a mail-delivery box, with an outside door fastened by lock and key and an inside alarm-bell and indicator, so constructed and arranged that the act of turning the key to unlock the door will necessarily cause the alarm-bell to be struck or rung and indicate to the attendant inside what box has been opened or unlocked.

It consists, secondarily, in the peculiar mechanism by which these results are effected, and by means of which, also, the postmaster or attendant inside is enabled readily to unlock the box-door without the use of a key.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure I is a perspective view of the box, with the top plate removed to show the mechanism by means of which the turning of the key causes the bell to be struckV or rung. Fig. 1I is an inside view of the side plate of the box to which the lock is attached, with a side View ofthe door standing partly open. Fig. III is the corrugated plate on thedoor with which the lever lock-bolt engages, drawn on an enlarged'scale, and Fig. IV is a view of the inner side of the lock-plate, showing the key and the inside mechanism of the lock, also upon an enlarged scale. Fig. V is a cross-section of the lock inverted with the key in place.

Like letters indicate the saine partsin all the figures.

A is the letter-box 5 B, the door, opening outwardly by a vertical fall, so arranged that it can only fall to a horizontal position; and B. is a glass panel in the door, on which the number of the box is indicated by figures.

C is a lever lock-bolt and bellhammer, extending from the lock to the inner` end of the box, and turning upon a fulcrum, a.

D is a corrugated metallic plate attached to the inside of the door, with a notch, b, in one edge, into which a hook, h, on the front end of the lever lock-bolt enters land locks the door.

E is a sheetmetal sliding plate on the inside of the lock-plate, with a staple, d, passing through a vertical slot, c, in the lock-plate, and connecting with the front end of the lever C on the reverse side of the lock-plate. A flan ge, f, projects from the sliding plate E, with which the key engages on being turned to unlock the door.

F is the alarm-bell, so attached to the inner end of the box that the inner end of the lever O will strike it on being operated by turning the key; and p is a pawl pivoted to the inner end of the side plate of the box, by means of which the lever() can be fastened down by aperson inside, so that the door cannot be unlocked from without until said pawl is turned aside from the lever.

The operation of the machine is as follows: The door being locked by means of the hook on the front end of the lever G engaging with the corrugated plate D in the notch bto unlock the door, the key is inserted and turned from right to left, when the projection t' of the key engages with the liange j' of the sliding plate and depresses it, the staple d. moving in the vertical slot c, and carrying with it the front end of the lever 1ock-bolt, disengaging the hook 7L from the corrugated plate. As said front end of the lever descends it strikes the inclined plane of the corrugated plate at j and starts the door open. At the same time .the inner end of the lever ascends and strikes blow to indicate the box which has been unlocked.

llhe door is self-locking', as, when shut to, the inclined plane of the corrugated plate (shown at k) strikes against the hook h, and depresses it until it enters the notch l) and locks the door.

rIhe postmaster or inside attendant can unlock the door by raising the inner end of the lever, which it may be desirable to do when the box-owner applies for his mail without having his key.

It is manifest that an indeiinite variety of keys may be made by varying the guards, &c., so that no one key Will open any two doors at the same office.

The alarm-bell is useful for divers purposes, and is especially useful as ameans of detecting attempts to ritle the boxes by means of false keys.

Having thus fully described my invention andthe inode of carrying it into operation, what I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. The combination of the leverloek-bolt C, with its hooked end h, the corrugated plate D, with the notch b, and the sliding plate E, with its projecting flange f and staple d, all constructed, arranged, and operating substantially' as and for the purposes described.

2. The lever lock-bolt C,in combination with the corrugated plateD, or its equivalent, when so arranged that said lock-bolt may be operated to unlock the door from the outside by means of a key, and from the inside by a 4 movement ofthe lever, substantially as shown and described.

3.' The combination of the sliding plate E, with its staple d, the lever lock-bolt C, and the bell F, so arranged that the turning ofthe key to unlock the door will cause the lever C to strike and ring the bell, substantially as described.

4. The inclined plane j of the corrugated plate D, in combination .with the lever lockbolt C, so arranged that When the front end of said lock-bolt is depressed by turning the key it will strike said inclined plane j and start the door open, substantially as described.

J AGOB H. BEIDLER. Witnesses J. J. GooMBs, C. W. ALEXANDER.

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